Sunday, May 24, 2009

Deer Island

It's become an annual tradition to spend Memorial Day weekend camping on Deer Island at Philpott Lake, VA, along with a mess o' friends. Done and done. Good weather, good food, good friends. One of the highlights for me was hiking Deer Island end to end. The island is a mile long and about a half mile wide, and I pretty much went around the circumference. It's also steeper than all getout. Several times, I reached a point and looked up, expecting to see sky. Nope; just more nearly vertical hillside. Undaunted, I went on until I reached the southernmost end.

Then I had to hike back.

It never felt so good to get off my feet—until after this morning's hike, which was only about half as long but twice as steep. Hoo! This morning, though, there was a geocache waiting for me at the end of it. Yep.

Click to enlarge pics.